By SARAH THOMACK

St. Joseph Post

As Red Cross shelters for flood victims begin to close, the organization is still helping with relief efforts in other ways.

Red Cross Disaster Program Specialist Teri Layton said the Mound City shelter closed last week and another in Buckner will close this week. Layton said the closings are a good thing.

“It’s a wonderful thing. That means… waters are going down, the folks that were in the shelter were able to find transitional housing.”

The Red Cross is continuing relief efforts in other ways through providing disaster emergency supplies for families in areas where water is receding and doing further case work in those areas. Layton said there are different levels of relief efforts and as those continue, donations are always necessary and volunteers are always needed.

“If your heart is moved by all the hard work that people do to help their community, please get involved with the Red Cross, get trained up so when the next event happens, you’re trained and ready,” Layton said. “When we open up a shelter, we don’t just throw cots up inside and leave. People have to be there to help maintain the shelter, help with the needs of the clients in the shelter, we need people willing to help serve food… there’s just lots of different ways people can be of assistance in a large scale event and the day-to-day events.”

The Greater Kansas City Chapter of the American Red Cross has 34 counties in the surrounding area on the Missouri and Kansas side, including northwest Missouri counties.

“I work with seven of those counties… directly with their emergency managers,” Layton said. “We make sure that we have good volunteer capacity in our communities and we work on preparedness, we work with their families who are affected by everyday emergencies like home fires. We do all kinds of stuff just to make our communities ready for the next event that happens, because it’s not an if it’s a when. The more prepared we are, the better we can respond and recover.”

For more information about area Red Cross relief efforts or volunteering, click here.

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A state senator says Missouri took a step in the right direction this legislative session to improve its roads and bridges and increase economic development opportunities.

Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer of Parkville says the $351 million project, a top priority of Gov. Mike Parson, will help Missouri take advantage of its prime location.

“We’re in the center of the country, meaning that we should be a hub for manufacturing and shipping just because we have a strategic advantage of where we are put on the map, but we rank near the bottom of states in terms of funding for infrastructure,” Luetkemeyer tells St. Joseph Post.

The legislature approved 7-year bonds totaling $350 million to upgrade 250 of the state’s worst bridges. Lawmakers appropriated another $100 million in General Revenue with $50 million going to roads and bridges and the remaining $50 million providing matching funds to local governments for road repairs.

Luetkemeyer says the General Assembly took a big step toward helping public education in Missouri with passage of a $30 billion state budget. Legislators fully funded the Foundation Formula, the formula Missouri uses to pay for public schools.

Lawmakers also approved providing each four-year college and university $1 million in additional funds for their core budgets. Luetkemeyer says it is important Missouri begin to play catch-up with higher education funding.

“We don’t want to get ourselves in a situation where tuition has to increase at such a rate where there is no distinction between what’s charged at a private university and what is charged at a public university, because then it undermines the ability of a lot of people to be able to go out and get an education,” according to Luetkemeyer.

The legislature also approved Gov. Parson’s $10 million “fast track” proposal, which will fund scholarships for non-traditional students to get vocational training.

Luetkemeyer says workforce development is vital for Missouri’s economic growth.

“One of the things that I learned about whenever I was campaigning for this office in St. Joe in particular is that people will say, ‘Look, we have good quality jobs in our community.’ And people talk about there not being enough employment, but when you talk to employers, different small business owners, they say, no we’ve got the jobs here, we just need to make sure that we have a well-trained workforce with the types of skills that we need in order to fill the existing jobs,” Luetkemeyer says.

Luetkemeyer says previously it was assumed that high school graduates should go to college. He says, now, those graduates can get high-pay jobs through vocational training.

Luetkemeyer is disappointing the legislature failed, once again, to approve a prescription drug monitoring program. He says it is important to monitor prescriptions of pain relief to combat the growing opioid epidemic. Missouri is the only state that does not have some form of drug monitoring program.

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A St. Joseph city councilmember remains unhappy with the performance of City Manager Bruce Woody, but has failed in an effort to suspend him without pay for one week.

Councilmember Brian Myers got only three votes on his motion to suspend Woody during a closed session with five voting against the measure. Myers says he’s prohibited from going in-depth about the discussion during the closed-door meeting.

“The only thing I can legally say is that I made a motion to suspend our city manager, Bruce Woody, for one week without pay and that motion did not pass,” Myers tells Barry Birr, host of the KFEQ Hotline.

Myers has been displeased with the city manager for some time. He and another city councilmember couldn’t get any support for their efforts to fire Woody last August.

As for his reasons, Myers only says there are gaps in leadership at city hall. Myers says state law prohibits him from disclosing what was discussed behind closed doors.

“What I can say is my own personal opinion that we do have some leadership issues that start from the top and trickle all the way down, that there are certain issues with the budget that have not been addressed in a proper fashion,” according to Myers. “I believe it’s time for some course action in making some changes so that we can, all of us, move forward together as a city.”

Myers says he’s following the lead of the voters, who signaled their displeasure with the direction of the city by electing five new members to the council.

 

 

By SARAH THOMACK

St. Joseph Post

Today, June 6th, 2019, marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

“D-Day… not an end, it was a beginning,” said Devlin Scofield, Assistant Professor of History at Northwest Missouri State University. “It was a beginning of liberation of western Europe and an end to Nazi occupation and all of the horrors that were associated with it.”

Scofield said D-Day is one of the most iconic moments of American participation in World War II and a critical moment in the history of the United States and Europe.

“One of the things that’s so important about D-Day, just strictly from a logistical standpoint, was that Operation Overlord was the largest air, land and sea operation ever undertaken in history,” Scofield said. “Just the numbers involved are staggering, something like, 5,000 ships, 11,000 airplanes and over 150,000 servicemen.”

Scofield said D-Day was a culmination of years of planning and was an assault on five different beaches code-named Omaha, Utah, Juno, Sword and Gold.

“The conditions that these soldiers faced were daunting. The Germans had had four years to fortify the French coastline,” Scofield said. “I think it’s also important to keep in mind that many of these soldiers were young men, many not more than 20-years-old, and were asked to do an incredible task – and the cost that the Allies bore is incredible. Around 10,000 casualties and more than 4,000 who were actually killed.”

After the landings, Allied troops would advance their fight and take Paris in late summer. Germany surrendered less than a year later in May 1945.

Seventy-five years after D-Day, visitors to Normandy can see the American cemetery on the bluff overlooking Omaha Beach with rows and rows of white marble gravestones marking the resting place of the over 9,380 who lost their lives on or after D-Day.

“Having been there myself, I can attest to the hallowedness of the place, and it’s places like this that we can begin to grasp the full measure of what it cost to defeat National Socialism,” Scofield said. “Now, 75 years on, there’s fewer and fewer eyewitnesses who participated in the landings and as the veterans themselves increasingly disappear, I think it’s important to keep alive the memory of their sacrifices and also the values for which they were fighting.”

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A Kansas Congressman says he appreciates President Donald Trump’s efforts to soften the economic blow of his trade dispute with China, but adds farmers want more trade, not handouts.

Congressman Roger Marshall says he has told the White House that farmers simply want more opportunities to sell agricultural products abroad.

“We keep emphasizing what we want is open trade markets, not a handout, and I think the White House has received that loud and clear,” Marshall tells KFEQ Farm Director Melissa Gregory. “But, on the other hand, farm agricultural bankruptcies are up, record highs unfortunately across Kansas. Mental health issues, suicides are up as well. People are way behind on their loans. So, maybe this mitigation money will help some farmers stay afloat for another three to six months.”

It is not a long-term solution, though, according to Marshall. He says other trade opportunities need to be seized.

Marshall says a good start would be for Congress to vote on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement which would replace NAFTA.

Marshall, a Republican, accuses Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of refusing to bring USMCA to the floor for a vote, because she doesn’t want President Trump to win a victory.

“So, it’s very frustrating to me. I sure cannot control President Xi and the Chinese, but we could take USMCA off the uncertainty pile and move it over to the certainty,” according to Marshall. “I just want to emphasize that we trade four times more of our products with Mexico and Canada than we do with China. So, we need to get USMCA done yesterday.”

Marshall says expanded trade is vital to the agricultural economy. He says that is a message he has delivered to the president.

“And I pressed upon him just as hard as I could that Mr. President, we need to get USMCA done,” Marshall says. “We need to get China done, let alone the European Union and the Japanese markets. So, I think the upside is incredibly up, but it’s also hard times.”

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves applauds passage of a $19.1 billion federal disaster aid package, which contains money to offset losses from this year’s floods.

“This is going to go a long way toward helping us in terms of damage control for levee systems, roads systems, public assistance, everything that goes along with that,” Graves tells St. Joseph Post. “One of the things we did in there too was, grain crops that are stored have never been covered before and this is something that we were able to change.”

Slightly more than $3 billion has been allocated to offset agricultural losses due to floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters. Money will be provided to compensate for the loss of stored grain, which Graves says was added specifically for northwest Missouri, which saw floodwaters surround grain bins, break them open, causing them to spill their contents. Graves says floodwaters along the Missouri River rose so fast farmers didn’t have enough time to move grain to higher ground.

The federal disaster relief package also includes $435 million to help states and local partners restore watersheds.

Nearly $2.5 billion has been allocated to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to repair damage to Corps projects. An additional $740 million has been given to the Corps to accelerate construction of projects to reduce the risk from future floods and hurricanes; $35 million has been set aside to study ways to reduce the risk of future floods and hurricanes. Also included in the package is $1.65 billion to reimburse states for the damage done by natural disasters to federal highways.

Graves says he’s satisfied with the amount appropriated to offset flood losses.

“I am at this point. The problem is we don’t know what’s coming down the road. We don’t know how much worse it’s going to get,” Graves says. “The situation is if we don’t have those levee breaches fixed, then that leaves us vulnerable to the river coming up again and restarting this process all over again.”

Partisan bickering delayed passage of the disaster relief package. President Donald Trump and many Republicans in the House objected to the $1.4 billion allocated to aid Puerto Rico in its ongoing efforts to recover from 2017’s Hurricane Maria. The president accused the U.S. territory of not efficiently using existing disaster relief funds. Democrats countered that the president downplayed the devastation left in Maria’s wake.

Some conservative Republicans in the House held out for money to extend the wall along the southern border of the country, but a provision in the bill effectively blocks any defense funding for being used for border wall construction.

Graves says a deal should have been reached earlier.

“It is a frustration, because you have people out there their lives and their livelihoods and their businesses and everything are hanging in the balance, but the good news is we were able to get it done.”

The bill has been sent to President Trump for his signature. He is expected to sign it.

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Water releases from Gavins Point Dam will remain at 75,000 cubic feet per second for some time, perhaps for the remainder of the year.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had ratcheted up releases from the dam upstream on the Missouri River, bringing them to 70,000, until Saturday, when the Corps raised releases to their present 75,000 cfs.

Missouri River Basin Water Management Chief John Remus with the Corps says the increase is needed to handle a huge influx of water.

“The runoff forecast is now, for 2019, is 50 million acre-feet, which if realized will be the second highest runoff on record, over 121 years; second only to 2011,” Remus tells a conference call held by the Corps.

That year, runoff totaled nearly 62 million acre-feet.

Gavins Point is the lowest of the six upstream Missouri River dams used by the Corps of Engineers to regulate flows into the Missouri River.

Heavy rains, plus increased mountain snowpack melt have filled the upstream Missouri River reservoirs.

Remus says the upper Missouri River Basin has seen 30 million acre-feet of runoff so far this year, with another 20 million expected soon.

“What that means, long-term, is that the 75,000 cfs is going to be maintained, probably, well into the fall of not all the way through till we start ratcheting down for the winter flows,” according to Remus.

If the forecast holds, it will be the second-highest water releases from Gavins Point, behind only 2011, when the Corps increase releases to 160,000 cubic feet per second during the height of the flood. A normal flow from Gavins Point this time of year is 30,000. In 1997, the Corps raised releases from Gavins Point to 70,000 cfs, previously second highest.

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Missouri lawmakers appropriated eight million dollars to help in flood recovery this year.

The money could come in handy now that Congress has approved $19.1 billion in disaster relief assistance. The United States House gave overwhelming approval to the bill reshaped by the Senate. The bill now goes to President Donald Trump for his signature.

State Sen. Dan Hegeman of Cosby, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, says the $8 million state appropriation can be used as a match to draw down federal disaster relief aid.

“Hopefully, we will use that to match the federal dollars that come down from FEMA, which is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and this will help with the local match to those FEMA dollars,” Hegeman tells St. Joseph Post.

Hegeman adds the General Assembly also added more money in the Department of Transportation budget to help repair roads and bridges damaged by floodwaters.

MoDOT reports as many as 400 roads have been closed because of flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

The federal disaster package will provide aid to offset the cost of recovery for a wide variety of disasters throughout the country, including wildfires in California and hurricanes in the southeastern portion of the United States. Assistance for flood victims was added after the mid-March floods devastated a wide swath of the Midwest, flooding which has been compounded by abnormally heavy rain since.

The relief package includes $1.4 billion to help Puerto Rico with ongoing recovery efforts since Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the U.S. territory. A partisan skirmish over the additional aid to Puerto Rico help up passage of the bill.

Hegeman says this year will be hard for many living along the Missouri River, especially the farmers who grow crops in the fertile Missouri River bottoms.

“Oh, it’s a struggle, it’s a struggle this year for those who farm in the bottoms along the Missouri River,” Hegeman says. “There is likely a potential for not seeing much of an income for three years. I don’t know how many businesses can manage through something like that. It’s going to be tough.”

Hegeman says a lot of work is ahead for the Missouri Department of Transportation in wake of this year’s flooding. He says a priority of the state is to reopen the two routes from northwest Missouri into southeast Nebraska.

“On one of the roads, I think (U.S.) 159, we have a bridge that twisted and will have to be replaced. It will be likely, at the quickest, a year before we will be able to get that bridge replaced,” Hegeman says. “There are other routes to be able to open up the Rulo bridge so we can at least have a circuitous route to get there, but at least get that bridge opened up.”

Both the Rulo bridge and the Brownville bridge held up under Missouri River flooding. The roads leading to the bridges did not. MoDOT has issued contracts to repair U.S. 159 leading to the Rulo bridge and to repair U.S. 136 leading to the Brownville bridge to reopen vital avenues between Missouri and Nebraska. Highway 2, just across the state line in Iowa which leads to Nebraska City, had been reopened until renewed flooding forced the Iowa Department of Transportation to close it and Interstate 29 again.

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Water being held back by a severely eroded watershed dam south of Sabetha is slowly being released to lessen any possible flooding should the dam fail.

The Kansas Department of Agriculture Division of Water Resources reports a contractor has begun to lower water levels incrementally to reduce the risk of downstream flooding. Division officials say once the reservoir is lowered, a plan will be developed to repair the dam.

The prospect of the dam’s failure sparked some panic in portions of northeast Kansas. Initial reports claimed the dam’s failure was imminent. The Division of Water Resources refuted that report, issuing a statement saying floodwaters had seriously eroded the back side of the dam, but that its failure was not imminent.

The dam has been monitored closely by the division since last Tuesday. A safety team was sent to the site to inspect the damage.

County officials have closed two nearby roads, County Road 220 and County Road 250, as a precautionary measure.

A division official says he doesn’t believe that anybody is in danger due to the deteriorating condition of the dam.

The Kansas Division of Water Resources is in communication with the Kansas Division of Emergency Management.

State officials also greatly downplay initial reports that failure of the dam could overrun U.S. Highway 36 in northeastern Kansas or threaten the Kickapoo Indian Reservation and the Golden Eagle Casino, stating its failure would likely only flood surrounding agricultural land.

Still, the National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch for south of Sabetha down the Delaware River which could affect east-central Nemaha County, southwestern Brown County, and northeastern Jackson County.